ABC Hires Hate Hustler Andrew Breitbart As Election Analyst

Over a year ago

by Kris Broughton

In a nation of over 300 million people, you would think that ABC could find someone else besides Andrew Breitbart to analyze election results. Who are they going to feature for color commentary—Tim Profitt, the Kentucky man who invented the Rand Paul Stomp? Hiring Andrew Breitbart to provide election night analysis at an Arizona townhall meeting is like hiring a convicted child molester to work at a daycare center. Which is even sadder when you realize that ABC is owned by Disney. I guess I didn’t realize that the media had its own affirmative action program for congenital bald-faced liars like Breitbart.

I was upset, but not surprised. Back in July, when Breitbart’s release of the artfully edited Shirley Sherrod video sparked outrage among conservatives and Tea-publicans, I included the following paragraph in the piece High-Tech Lynching Of Shirley Sherrod Has Begun:

The real travesty in all of this is, three months from now, when we are in the home stretch of this year’s political races, guys like Jeffrey Lord and Andrew Breitbart will be frequent guests on every news network in the country. Why do the networks—all of them, not just FOX News—gladly lend the air of legitimacy their cameras confer on their guests to these two, and the others like them? Because Lord and Breitbart are guaranteed to do the same thing they are doing now—make no sense, and promote nonsense.

Asked about Breitbart's history of unethical behavior and misinformation, ABC News' David Ford told Media Matters: "He will be one of many voices on our air, including Bill Adair of Politifact. If Andrew Breitbart says something that is incorrect, we have other voices to call him on it."

You really can’t beat that if you’re Breitbart—you get hired by a company who knows you are likely to screw up what they hired you to do. Although you would think, with all the downsizing going on in the news industry, that ABC had to be able to find at least twenty or thirty news personalities better qualified than Breitbart to represent their network. As Digby over at the blog Hullabaloo puts it:

ABC must know that the Shirley Sherrod or ACORN stories aren't the only examples of his mendacious ways. He's made his career out of these racist video hoaxes. It isn't a coincidence. So I think we have to assume they think having a lying racist on the air will bring in some ratings. Whether they foolishly see this as adding "edge" to their allegedly hip "Facebook" program or whether they are making a pitch for Fox's white supremacist audience, it's a journalistic travesty to allow this man and his lying lieutenant anywhere near a legitimate news organization.

As Andrew Breitbart has demonstrated over and over again, his sole purpose in life is to fight for the right to distort and oppress the truth. Make no mistake about it, Mr. Breitbart—you and your cohorts clumsy and ham handed efforts to control the political narrative in this country are not going to work. There are too many voices out here this time, too many voices that aren't controlled by Rupert Murdoch or GE or whoever owns the other major networks this week. We see you. We know who you are. And we are willing to go toe to toe with you every day of the week and ten times on Sundays.

As a matter of fact, Andrew, we already have your place on the wall in the Hate Hustlers Hall of Fame reserved.